Pages

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Lament for a Hero

Ellishul stopped for a moment, dread and grief clutching her heart despite the peaceful atmosphere of the Pristine Glade. It seemed for only a second that she heard the sound of a great horn over the wind, and then it vanished like a whisper in the night.

"Where is the horn? Where is it?" She listened, desperate to hear it again. Only once before did she hear that sound - in Rivendell, long ago, just before Mithrandir set out in the early morning with his company. The horn belonged to the mighty Captain of Gondor, whom Ellishul had become acquainted with during her brief stay.

Evening gave way to dawn, but still Ellishul did not hear the horn again. And in the sad, quiet of her heart, she knew she would hear it no more in the waking of this world.

Only a couple moments in the Lord of the Rings has drawn a real tear to my eye. The death of Boromir one of them, and perhaps the greatest of them all. The reason I decided to do a post and outfit of this context was because when I logged on to Lotro today, I was treated with this little screen cap as it loaded:

It's from the new dev diary detailing what's to come next in the epic story line. Read it here.

Call me sentimental, but this part in the Lord of the Rings really made me quite sad, ever since I read it in the books as a kid. I have such a deep respect for Boromir because he truly wants to do the right thing; he loves his father, brother and country to the point that he is willing to do whatever it takes. In the picture you can see he's really at his wits end with Frodo - arms outstretched, begging him to use the Ring to help Gondor return to it's former glory. But in the end, he gives in to his temptation of the Ring - a choice which ultimately led to the dissolving of the fellowship for good, as well as his own demise. But he died a true hero, sacrificing himself for others as he had always done.